March 2013 Tube Products International
53
plast ic and composi te innovat ions
Aluminium precision tube made in China
Cold drawn seamlesss tube
Cold drawn coil tube
For
Seawater desalination device
Power generation heat exchanger
Industrial refrigerant system
WUXI HATAL ALUMINIUM CO., LTD
No. 72, Zhouxin (E) Road, Binhu District,
Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, 214121, China
Tel: +86 510 85069506
Fax: +86 510 85061423
E-mail:
Aluminium
tube in China
Plastics from unconventional sources
The idea of making monomers and
polymers from sustainable sources
is rapidly becoming reality with many
companies targeting R&D funds and
investment in this field. The drivers
are to save the planet, reduce carbon
footprint and to develop a long-term
viable business.
The market for greener materials will
be affected by the discovery and
exploitation of shale gas, which supplies
a cheap source of ethylene precursors.
However, higher carbons are not found
in this resource and there is a shortage
arising, which is a further factor pushing
the search for new sources of monomers.
AMI provides an international forum to
debate the latest market developments
and technology trends at Green Polymer
Chemistry 2013, which takes place from
19 to 21 March at the Maritim Hotel,
Cologne, Germany.
Polymers are vital to the global economy,
from cable insulation, water pipes and
medical devices to packaging, and
there has to be a long-term solution to
sourcing that won’t run out with fossil
fuels. The additional benefits will come
from finding feedstocks that are waste
by-products from another arena that
need disposal, like waste to syngas
projects.
Work is continuing on enzyme and
conventional catalysis of bio-based
feedstocks to produce conventional
plastics. The industry is used to working
with petrochemical sources, so it will
need to adapt to working with agriculture
where there are different issues in the
supply chain. Cargill is one of the three
top agricultural companies in the world
(the ’ABC’ of ADM, Bunge and Cargill)
and has decades of expertise and
specialist consultants to advise industry
on building a suitable supply chain.
Poyry Management Consultants
has conducted a market study into
the future prospects for bio-based
materials. Linde Engineering Dresden
has built several industrial bio-refineries
to supply the polymer industry. Thailand
is rich in plant material, for example
it has excess sugar cane, and PTT
Global Chemical is expanding from its
conventional petrochemical feedstock
to looking at the potential for renewable
chemistry.
Wood can be a very sustainable
source of materials, and SCA Hygiene
products is involved in research to
make its polymer materials using this
resource. In the Netherlands, TNO
is leading the BioConSept project to
use second generation biomass in
plastics, including a pilot scale plant
at Fraunhofer IGB for lignocelluloses
conversion to useful chemicals.
Biomethodes in France is also working
in this area.
There are now well-established supplies
of polymers such as polyamides and
polyethylene from renewable sources.
One of the leading agricultural
universities in this field is Wageningen
UR in the Netherlands, where current
research projects include the discovery
of new sources of polyamide monomers.
Evonik is one of the key suppliers of
bio-based polyamide. The current
cost of bio-sourced materials is higher
than from petrochemical feedstock,
so companies like Taghleef Industries,
which are manufacturing films from
biobased polyethylene, have looked at
the market and the value to brand
owners of the sustainability of materials.
Another option for the speciality film
market is a new bio-based tie-layer from
Yparex.
In Japan Toray has made a big
breakthrough
in
manufacturing
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from
renewable sources. The DSM company
is already using bio-sources for
several of its polymers and one of the
latest developments is in unsaturated
polyester resin for composites. Acrylics
have been later in appearing in this
arena, but Arkema Altuglas has just
announced a breakthrough in this
field. There is an EU project on making
thermoplastic elastomers with SKZ as
one of the project leaders.
There are several polymers where green
feedstocks are regularly used and one
of those is polyurethane where the
polyol can be sourced from a variety
of plants. This has been reviewed
by Angela Austin, editor of the PU
Magazine. The isocyanate component
of PU is much harder to synthesise
from nature. Bayer Material Science
has established methods to produce
polyurethane using CO
2
as the base
material. One big area of interest is the
use of CO
2
from power stations as a
feedstock, and this has been achieved
by several major chemical companies
looking at both general hydrocarbons
and polymers. The latest development
is commercial ventures that are using
excess renewable energy to convert
the CO
2
to usable hydrocarbons and
by doing so providing a form of energy
storage. CO
2
is of great interest as
a feedstock for the polymer industry
as using it gives a negative carbon
footprint and removes a key factor from
the global warming equation, plus there
are abundant sources.
In IcelandCarbonRecycling International
is producing potential feedstock for
plastics in this way. Solvay is also active
in this market, generating hydrocarbons
and thus ‘storing energy’. Siemens is
leading the field in utilising sustainable
plastics from CO
2
waste.
Applied Market Information Ltd
– UK
